Sunday, February 1, 2009

We Made It!!

We survived the move and are getting settled in!! Thank you so much to everyone that had a hand in helping us!! You know who you are and we are so very appreciative for your help.

We have only had a few incidents so far......

1.) While moving we could see that all of our stuff was not going to fit in the u-haul. Sorry babe, I was right once again. I tried to tell Ryan that we needed the biggest u-haul they had but he thought he was mister pack-man and could fit it all. Well, once this happened my brother so kindly went and got his expedition and borrowed a trailer for us. He offered to drive down and back to help us out. We thought that was very generous but not necessary. Ryan said, "I'll drive the trailer and Jenyce can drive the u-haul !" What? Me... drive that ginormous thing? You have got to be kidding. I don't like to impose on anyone so I agreed. I think I did a fabulous job and actually, it wasn't that bad after all! That partly had to do with the fact that now Ryan got to drive with the kids and I was kid free! I got to listen to my very own music and sip on my soda without any interruptions!

2.) Our refrigerator didn't fit in the space provided so we had to buy a new one. That is especially sad when you don't have a job anymore!

3.) The morning after we arrived my Mom went in to take a shower. After flushing the toilet and stepping into the shower she realized that poop was coming up threw the shower drain! Crap....literally! We had a slight blockage that was soon fixed.

4.) Next, we heard some little feet trickling around in the attic. Must be mice. Ryan proceeded to climb up there and put poison all around to kill them. Oh he killed them alright. We new from the heinous smell of death that permeated are house for a week or more. Glad that is over!

5.)After church on Sunday we were heading to Duncan to visit Ryan's Mom and Dad. We decided to stop at home first to change our clothes....bad idea. Ryan was flustered with the whiny, tired kids screaming in the back, me in his ear about something, and the oncoming truck, that he backed right into the ditch next to our house!! Oh boy, this is trouble. I am sure glad it wasn't me because I knew that was bound to happen at some point. I never thought it was going to be Ryan that did it. Needless to say an hour an a half later Ryan with his manly, handy skills was able to pull the car out of the ditch, with my help of course! What a task! I don't know what he did other than jack the car up really high and tie a chain to the van and had me pull it out with the van. Go-Green-Gadget! I was sweating and extremely nervous but it all worked out in the end. Ryan, your amazing! Way to go! To flustered to take a picture at the time. I will post a picture of the ditch later with house pics.

While this was going on outside I had Abby in-charge inside. Scary, I know! I was afraid of what I was going to see when I went inside. However, I never thought I would see this....



I was too late with the camera for the best part! When I walked in, Abby was rocking Kenna in the chair, singing to her and tickling her back.....so sweet! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. She had rocked her sister to sleep. When Abby saw me she decided she was done. She slid out from behind Kenna and plopped her on the chair.....Kenna still sleeping. I guess we had totally exhausted everyone because she never sleeps anywhere except her bed.


6.) Abby slipped getting into the bathtub and split her chin open and we spent an afternoon at urgent care. Thank goodness we do have an urgent care here!

Happy as a lark! Wouldn't it be nice if every visit to the urgent care looked like this! She must not have realized what was coming next.

Before......


Align Center

...after

No stitches, just Derma-Bond! Until a few hours later when that came un done.....Super-Glue! I know that is white trash but the urgent care was closed and the E.R. had over an hour wait! Sorry Abby, your Dad won this one! Cross our fingers that #7 isn't a trip back to urgent care for an infection!

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

January 6th .... Dad's 8th year anniversary

I can't believe I have spent 8 years without my sweet daddy! Man I miss him so much, but time sure has flown by. I have graduated from aesthetician and massage therapy programs, gotten married to the most charming, full of life, curious, intelligent guy, lived in a scorpion infested home (if you can even call it a home), brought 2 sweet, angel girls into this world that I know you had a part in and survived a few scary medical complications during and after Kenna's birth, and last but not least picked up and moved my family away, from what I call home, so that Ryan could attend nursing school and pursue his passion.

All along the way I have wished you could be here for all of those big, important, life changing events in my life! I struggled quite a bit after you were gone with my testimony, anger, depression, hurt and lonliness but I knew that was not what you wanted for me. I couldn't understand why Heavenly Father would take my best friend away from me. I didn't know how I was going to go on without having those comforting hugs, daddy/daughter dates, words of encouragement and praise, PPI's, and everything else we had. With the help of the gospel and Heavenly Father and your sweet, amazing wife that stood by me, even when I was being a not-head, and friends and family, I soon realized that was not the path I wanted to take. I didn't want to have that anger in my heart any more. I just thought of how disappointed you probably were with me. I knew that that was one of your biggest fears of leaving me, you didn't want me to hurt.

I am so grateful for the love and support and the strength that I have gained from this experience. I realized that I needed to be grateful that I had such a loving, tender, compassionate father and such a great relationship with him. Even though it was for a short 18 years, some kids don't ever get the chance to have that at all. For that I am grateful! I am also grateful for the close relationship I have gained with Mom and my Heavenly Father!

I now know that I can live without you even though it is sooo hard sometimes and that I miss you tons. I wish you were still here to get to know my Ryan and that my girls could have had another Grandpa! I know you would just love them to pieces! Thank goodness for that wonderful reunion that we get to have in heaven! Thank you for what you have taught me and for being the BEST dad a girl could ask for! I LOVE YOU DADDY!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

December Updates....

Warning..... long post (This is for me and my records)



Dec. 4th ... "The Polar Express"


Abby and I got to go to "The Polar Express" with my mom and some of Abby's cousins. It was an absolute blast! If you haven't been before I highly recommend it.






Here we are on the train in our pj's on our way to the "North Pole" to pick up Santa Claus... so exciting!


On the train the elfs passed out cookies and hot chocolate and read the book "Polar Express".


Once we picked up Santa from the North Pole, we sang songs until he made it to our cabin. He gave each of the kids silver bells and we were on our merry way.







On our way home we stopped at the deer farm. The kids each got a cup of food and in we went with the deer. They ate it right out of our hand. If you weren't careful they would attack you for your food.



Dec. 6th... WHITE TRASH


We made a trip to our new place in Safford before the "big move" to get a head start. I believe we qualified for the term "white trash"! In fact, we probably still do qualify! I am pretty sure that any time you put a mattress on top of your car you qualify.



My poor mom got the lovely pleasure of going with us and also the pleasure of being squished between my two girls! What a trip that was. Sorry mom!




Dec. 19... Ryan's Last Gore Party ...


Ryan's work Christmas party was held at Rustlers Rooste. My camera batteries died so I didn't get many pics but we sure had a blast. I didn't get a shot of Ryan's wrangler jeans, yes he wore them out in public, but all the ladies sure got a shot!


Cute face babe. We spent the evening eating, dancing, and saying goodbye to all of Ryan's co-workers. It sure warmed my heart to hear all the nice things people had to say about Ryan and how much they were going to miss him and his fun personality. They said that he made work fun and that he always made them laugh. A few of the ladies said "we have never met better guys than Ryan and Blue (Ryan's best friend that worked at Gore as well)"



I thought this was hilarious and fitting since I have gained a few pounds over the holiday season.



Tolman Christmas Party


We had our annual Tolman Christmas Party at my Aunt's house. We look forward to this every year because Santa makes a showing and to see family, of course.


Kenna wasn't so sure about the whole Santa thing.


Abby loved it!


However, she sure loved the backpack Santa brought her!


As did Abby.


And Then There Was Christmas....


We spent Christmas at my mom's this year since we were all packed up in boxes. That was really fun for us and the girls. And I think mom, grandma and gramps enjoyed it as well.

Christmas Eve tradition of pajama's.


Grandma and Grandpa even joined in with us.

CHRISTMAS MORNING..



The girls got a doll house!!!!





Jen got a gag gift...

...and Ryan put it on his head!


Ryan and I got this fabulous quilt from my mom for Christmas. It's kind of a funny story. Ryan and I started this quilt when we were dating as a project to keep us out of trouble... I couldn't keep my hands off him. Anyway, we pieced it together and never finished it. My mom found it in her closet and finished it for us for Christmas! What a great gift and perfect timing because it is freezing down here. We snuggle in it all the time as do the kids. Thanks mom, your the best!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Merry Christmas to ALL!!

Instead of sending out Christmas cards this year like I always do (wait, have I EVER sent a Christmas card) I decided it would be a fabulous idea to make my header a Christmas card! We have been very busy packing up our house, not to mention my procrastination, and the time just flew right by. Well, I thought this was a great idea until I realized it has been a while since I changed my header. So it took me longer to figure it out than it would have to write and send out Christmas cards! You win some and lose some. Anyways, Merry Christmas to ALL!

Five Simple Rules for Happiness:

1. Free your heart from hatred
2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live SIMPLY
4. Give more
5. Expect less
6.Oh, and having lots of money helps... that must be why we are so happy! LOL!
#6 was added by Ryan.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Here I am playing catch-up again!!

My computer had a virus and it took hubby a few weeks to get around to fixing it (you know how that goes). Then it was fixed for a day or two and then the whole computer crashed. So Hubby is still working on that and in the mean-time I am going crazy without a computer. I don't recommend it. I am taking advantage of his on-call laptop to catch up. So here is what we have been up to. A few more to come as well as more pics.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

BIG NEWS!!

We are MOVING!!!

Ryan got accepted to nursing school at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, AZ starting on January 7th. Our house is located in Safford about 6 miles from the college and about 45 minutes from Ryan's folks. It should be an exciting, fun, and poor two years! Yeah for figuring out what we want to do with our lives at 30... better late than never! I am so proud of Ryan and I am actually looking forward to the change, although I am really going to miss everyone! Thank goodness for blogs, right?

Happy THANKSGIVING!!

I am grateful for:


-My husband Ryan
-My sweet girls Abby and Kenna
-A Heavenly Father that loves me no matter what
-A loving dad that I know watches over me and gives me strength
-My sweet Mom that is amazingly strong and a great role model
-All of my family
-Friends
-Our health
-Love
-The Gospel
-My testimony
-Ryan's love and support through everything and all of his hard work
-Our home
-Our freedom
-Our home, food, and jobs


This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Harris crew. It was a crew alright! Heather blessed her little guy Merrick on Sunday so her entire in-law family was in town and Francie invited them to our Thanksgiving dinner. And Tiffani's Mother-in-law was also in town so we invited her as well. I think we had about 40 people there and we were one BIG happy family! We enjoyed stuffing our faces and then we all sat around singing along to some good tunes played by Danny and Ed Torriente as well as my sweet Ry (just like the good 'ol days). After our food settled a bit, everyone played a game of soccer. Then we parted our ways and moved on to my mom's house where we ate some amazing pies! You seriously have not lived until you have enjoyed a slice of Bonnie's homeade pie! WHOA!

HUNTING FOR BAMBI!!

Ryan went with his dad and brothers on their yearly hunting trip (we like to call it camping with guns because they usually don't see any deer let alone kill anything). However, this time Ryan finally did it! Yeah Hubby I am so excited for you and even more excited to eat what you killed! Yumm! Yumm!

To Be Continued..... by Ryan someday

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

ABBY is FOUR!!



Abby at 4!

39 lbs. 41 inches

-She is the Best Big sister ever!
-She is so sweet to Kenna (most of the time)
-She is always giving hugs and kisses to us and saying "love you too"
-She loves to ride bikes, swing, read books, dance, play with cousins and friends, go to Duncan
-We love her sassy hair, all of it!
-She loves to help mom around the house with everything from laundry to making beds to cooking. I really enjoy that when I'm not in a hurry.

-When someone has an owie she says "what'd you bonk from?"
-When she sees a bald man she asks "where's his top hair?"



Abby wanted to have her birthday party at the park this year. So we played, ate pizza and cake, and had one heck of a party! Thank you everyone for coming and making Abby's day special!! I can't believe my little girl is already 4!